565 new leaders graduated in the fifth CAF Leadership for the Transformation Program

November 16, 2009

In alliance with the IDEA Foundation, the Leadership for
Transformation Program has trained a total of 3,175 Bolivian
leaders in the last five years

(La Paz, November 16, 2009).- CAF, in alliance with the IDEA
Foundation, closed the Leadership for the Transformation 2009
Program with the graduation of 575 leaders from around the country,
whose capacities were strengthened through training in areas such
as negotiation, conflict management and resolution; human rights
and democracy; governance, citizen participation, public management
and environment, in the context of knowledge and awareness of
Bolivian reality.

Of the total number of graduates, 29% were from rural and 71% from
urban areas. The program was held in 12 cities: La Paz, Cochabamba,
Santa Cruz, El Alto, Oruro, Llallagua, Sucre, Tarija, Trinidad,
Cobija, Challapata, and Potosí. The selection criteria used to
define the localities were demographic concentration, territorial
issues, cultural identity and accessibility by road.

CAF and the IDEA Foundation - its local partner - have been
organizing the training program since 2004; in these four years
3,175 Bolivian leaders have graduated in the country's nine
departments.

During the graduation ceremony, the CAF director of governance and
technical cooperation (DGCT), Elvira Lupo, said the objective of
the program was to identify and empower natural leaders in the
exercise of transforming leadership, "capable of identifying the
needs of communities and formulating actions which contribute to
better exercise of their citizenship."

Leadership for the Transformation is a program which CAF promotes
in the five Andean countries. Until 2009, the program had trained a
total of 14,411 leaders from 2,186 municipalities in the region.
The training, which takes six months, is based on three aspects:
individual, collective and public; aiming for a balance between
State and community under the principles of interculturality,
social and gender equity, and environment.

The IDEA Foundation trains and educates leaders, professionals,
technicians and citizens, who can respond to the new challenges of
transformation of the State, the market and society.